The Image of Bruce Lee

Rating:
Summary: A mediocre Bruce clone film saved by the amazing Dana Lei
Review: Like the vast majority of Bruceploitation films, 1978's Image of Bruce Lee (with the exception of one throwaway line) has absolutely nothing at all to do with Bruce Lee. This film stars Bruce Li, the best known of the Bruce Lee clones of the 70s, and it's quite unlike any other Bruce Li film I have seen up to this point. Bruce and his sidekick "Moustache" (who looks for all the world like Tony Orlando to me, meaning I couldn't take him the least bit seriously) are detectives - to be more specific, they are probably the worst detectives in Hong Kong. These guys couldn't sneak up on a dead log in the middle of a hurricane, which means they end up fighting all the time. The movie opens with some guy threatening to jump off a building (the end result of which is quite comical in a sadistic sort of way); there is something about jewelry smuggling mentioned here and there, but the only real purpose the scene seems to serve is to make Bruce Li dress up in a hideous yellow jumpsuit like that worn by Bruce Lee in Game of Death. The real crime here is counterfeiting, and the men behind it are Han Ying Kit (whom martial arts fans will easily recognize as the The Big Boss from Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury aka The Big Boss) and his buff son Stephen. Bolo Yeung, another familiar face to Bruce Lee fans, plays Kimura, a Japanese criminal who brings his own agenda to his dealings with the counterfeiters. This film is by and large pretty boring, with some of the most uninspired fight scenes I've ever seen (at least until the final showdowns); I couldn't tell if the guys were fighting or dancing half the time.

Image of Bruce Lee has an ace up its sleeve, though, in the form of Dana Lei. She is the most gorgeous Asian lady I've ever seen in my life. She, much to my surprise, also does a couple of completely nude scenes in this movie, thereby making up for a lot of the inane plot points and boring stretches of non-action. This movie is all about Dana Lei as far as I'm concerned; beautiful, smart, much more than meets the eye, and she can fight too. What a woman! She even supplies the big twist that helps get Image of Bruce Lee over the hump. Of course, it is up to Bruce Li to supply the climactic action sequence at the end, and we finally get some decent fighting to enjoy. There's a silly little comedic epilogue-type ending, but Dana Lei's performance plus the memorable final kung fu conflict earns an otherwise mediocre film four stars in my book.